[0:00] Heat

[0:01] >> [music]

[0:10] » up

[0:13] [music]

[0:21] here.

[0:22] [music]

[0:28] » [music]

[0:36] » Heat. Heat. [music]

[0:48] » [music]

[1:09] » Hi and welcome to the diversity, [music]

[1:11] equity, and inclusion committee meeting

[1:13] for September 28th, 2026. Can we call

[1:16] the roll please?

[1:17] >> Cramp

[1:18] >> here.

[1:18] >> Peterson

[1:21] um

[1:22] >> Aeros

[1:24] here.

[1:25] >> I forgot to ask you. Um Miller Lever

[1:30] Tolman

[1:31] >> here.

[1:32] >> Uh Deng

[1:33] >> here.

[1:34] >> Okay, we have a quorum.

[1:35] >> Thank you. And now Andy, can you please

[1:37] read the land acknowledgements?

[1:39] >> Yes. We are gathered here on the lands

[1:42] that were originally home to the

[1:43] Monomony and Ho Chunk nations. We honor

[1:45] the Monomony and Ho Chunk communities

[1:47] and are grateful for their stewardship

[1:49] of the land and waters. We acknowledge

[1:51] these ancestral grounds as sacred and

[1:54] remember the complex history of settler

[1:56] colonialism on these lands and the

[1:58] effects that persist today. We commit to

[2:01] a restorative and healing relationship

[2:02] of the original inhabitants and our

[2:05] community.

[2:06] Thank

[2:07] >> you. And now I can you read the mission

[2:08] statement? Yeah.

[2:10] The mission of the diversity, equity,

[2:12] and inclusion committee is to create a

[2:14] more welcoming, connected, and equitable

[2:16] Oshkosh by consciously including the

[2:17] richness and complexities of

[2:19] marginalized voices in its planning and

[2:21] function. Thank you. And now we have to

[2:24] welcome a new committee member.

[2:28] So this is Abby. And would you like to

[2:30] say something about yourself or

[2:32] >> We'll all introduce ourselves as well.

[2:33] Oh, that's sounds good.

[2:36] >> I'm Abby Amacher. Um, happy to be here.

[2:40] Uh, and I'm looking forward to it. So, I

[2:42] don't know if you all know anything

[2:43] about me, but

[2:45] yeah, whatever you want to. Sure. Uh,

[2:47] former social worker. Um, I currently

[2:50] have a small private practice um,

[2:52] working with kids with some behavioral

[2:53] challenges and I've been an Oshkosh

[2:56] resident for almost 20 years. That's

[2:59] awesome. Um, I'm Amanda Cramp. I'm the

[3:01] chair. I've lived in Oshkosh for almost

[3:04] 9 years now. Um, I do all kinds of stuff

[3:07] around town. Do a lot of volunteering

[3:09] with the school district. Um, a lot of

[3:11] food justice stuff. I've been on this

[3:14] committee for almost three two and a

[3:16] half years or so. Um, and I just like I

[3:20] love this city and I just want it to be

[3:21] as good as I know it can be.

[3:24] All right. Uh, my name is Ayak Deng and

[3:26] I work for the Ashkashi School District.

[3:29] Um, I'm new as well. Um, yeah, I'm

[3:32] excited to be here. My name is Andy

[3:35] Tilman. Um, I've been [clears throat] in

[3:37] Oshkosh for gez, uh, 15 years or so now.

[3:40] Um, and yeah, I'm passionate about

[3:42] making Oshkosh more inclusive space. So

[3:44] glad you're here to help out with it.

[3:47] >> All right, we'll get to Jim in a little

[3:49] bit when he gets his presentation. And

[3:52] I'm Michelle. We met before, but I'm the

[3:55] um staff liaison for for this committee

[3:58] from the city. So, and I have been the

[4:01] staff leazison since the beginning of

[4:03] the committee about 7 years ago. Okay.

[4:07] >> So, now we have to do some committee

[4:09] reorganization because we currently do

[4:11] not have a vice chair.

[4:14] So, at this time I call for nominations

[4:16] for vice chair. A second is not

[4:18] required.

[4:21] Are there any nominations?

[4:25] I'm going to nominate Andy.

[4:29] So, have a question about that. Um, I

[4:30] didn't think of this until just now. I

[4:32] think I'm technically an alternate. Can

[4:34] I be vice chair as an alternate?

[4:36] >> That's a question for Michelle.

[4:37] >> Yes.

[4:38] >> Okay.

[4:39] >> Actually, our our last vice chair was an

[4:41] alternate.

[4:42] >> Well, there we go.

[4:44] >> Are there any other nominations? This is

[4:46] the second time I am calling for them.

[4:48] >> Okay.

[4:50] >> Is anyone else interested in doing it?

[4:53] >> Third time I'm calling for other

[4:54] nominations.

[4:58] So, if there's only one nomination, I

[5:00] can ask for a motion to close

[5:01] nominations and elect the only candidate

[5:03] nominated. Do I have a motion for that?

[5:08] » So, I will entertain a motion to close

[5:11] nominations and elect Andy Tolman. Yep.

[5:13] >> Yep. I will entertain a motion to close

[5:15] nominations and elect Andy Tolman as

[5:17] vice chair by calling the vote. All in

[5:19] favor?

[5:21] >> Actually, we will do a little one by

[5:23] one.

[5:24] >> Yeah, we will do. So, um Amanda Hi,

[5:27] Cramp. I'm sorry. I [laughter]

[5:31] >> um

[5:33] Tolman

[5:34] >> I

[5:35] >> Deng

[5:36] >> I

[5:36] >> am

[5:37] >> I. All right.

[5:39] >> Congratulations. [clears throat]

[5:41] Yay.

[5:43] >> Okay. Good job, Vice Chair.

[5:46] And now we need to approve the minutes

[5:48] from the August 24th, 2026 meeting. Are

[5:51] there any comments about the thrilling

[5:54] minutes from last month? Any

[5:58] discussion? Anything?

[6:01] Do I have a motion to approve the

[6:03] minutes?

[6:10] Motion to approve.

[6:11] >> So moved.

[6:12] >> Do I have a second?

[6:16] » Yes. Second. Great.

[6:19] Can we take the role, please?

[6:22] All right. Um, cramp

[6:25] >> I

[6:25] >> amer.

[6:26] >> Hi,

[6:26] >> Tolman.

[6:27] >> Hi,

[6:28] >> Deng.

[6:28] >> Hi.

[6:29] >> All right.

[6:30] >> Do we have any public statements or

[6:32] public comments on agenda items?

[6:33] >> We do not have any statements or public

[6:36] comments items.

[6:38] >> So, now we move on to our presentation

[6:40] from Jim Bame from Father Cars. Welcome.

[6:44] >> Well, thank you. So, as Amanda said, my

[6:47] name is Jim Bame. I'm the executive

[6:49] director of Father Cars. I'm uh in my

[6:51] fifth year at the ministry and uh a

[6:55] brief history of Father Cars. So um in

[6:59] 1974, Father Carr the year he was

[7:02] ordained a Catholic priest um came to

[7:04] town and four high schoolers asked

[7:06] Father Carr that they said we need a we

[7:08] need a safe place that we can hang out.

[7:11] So the place to be and that's why it's

[7:12] called the place to be. It started out

[7:14] as a high school hangout in St. Pete's

[7:16] church basement. So, it was that and

[7:18] then and then eventually he wanted

[7:21] Father Carr wanted to uh start helping some people that need

[7:25] had some basic needs and and um uh those

[7:28] that were experiencing homelessness um

[7:31] those that needed some health care, food

[7:33] and and all that. So, he he started working with that population and

[7:38] then eventually the Green Bay Dascese

[7:39] said, "You know what, Father, you're

[7:41] doing some good stuff here. instead of

[7:42] giving you a parish, assigning you to a

[7:44] parish, your ministry will be Father

[7:46] Carter's place to be. So, um, so we've

[7:49] been doing it for 52 years. Um, because

[7:52] he was a Catholic priest, we are rooted

[7:54] in our Catholic faith, but our services

[7:56] are open to all.

[7:59] Everything we do at Father Cars is for

[8:01] nothing. It's it's it's all free. Okay?

[8:04] We there's absolutely no revenue in our

[8:06] ministry at all. Everything everything

[8:08] we do there is is free to the public.

[8:10] So, our mission statement, Father Carr

[8:13] pulled it right out of scripture. And

[8:14] just to paraphrase it real quick, Jesus

[8:16] told us to love each other, take care of

[8:19] each other, feed the feed the hungry,

[8:21] cure the sick, take in the stranger, and

[8:23] that's exactly what we do. So, let's

[8:26] break that down a little bit. Food

[8:28] security. How do we feed the hungry? We feed the We feed people in a lot of

[8:32] different ways. Our pantry is open every

[8:34] single day. Um on six days out of the

[8:38] week, people can come in and just get

[8:39] like groceries, a meal, um uh something

[8:43] to take home with them. Uh it's it's

[8:46] really geared towards daily sustenance.

[8:48] And then on Fridays, people come in.

[8:50] That's when our our major pantry is.

[8:53] People come in, they get their weekly

[8:54] groceries. They get a shopping cart.

[8:56] They go through the pantry and uh and and load up the load up the shopping

[9:00] cart. Our pantry is open to all. Um the

[9:04] only question we ask is how many people

[9:07] are in the household that you are taking

[9:10] the food to. We don't ask names, we

[9:12] don't ask income. You can come as many

[9:14] times as you want. It's uh it's open 365

[9:17] days to anybody who wants wants to come.

[9:20] Um we have a program called Table of

[9:23] Grace and what those are, those are

[9:25] frozen casserole dinners that we have

[9:27] certain organizations or parishes make

[9:29] for us. Um it is it was 2 years old in

[9:32] April. So it's about 2 and 1/2 years

[9:34] old. We have [clears throat] done about

[9:35] 2,300 meals um in that time. Uh people

[9:40] can just come in and and get a frozen

[9:42] casserole. Uh they feed about 8 to 10

[9:44] people. Our current selection is tater

[9:47] tot casserole, sloppy joe's macaroni and

[9:50] cheese and um chicken taco lasagna. Uh

[9:55] we are working on a uh a casserole

[9:57] dinner a hamal uh halo um diet. So it's

[10:01] a we we provide meals to um to the uh

[10:07] Ashkashiri school district. So we

[10:09] support we support the school district

[10:11] in that way too. We're part of the nurse

[10:12] and flourish committee. I don't know if

[10:14] you're familiar with them. Um so we are

[10:17] um trying to um diversify our menu a

[10:20] little bit so we can make sure that we

[10:22] have something for everybody. Um, we

[10:25] also feed the hungry by our community

[10:28] dinners, which we're pretty pretty

[10:30] famous for actually, our Thanksgiving,

[10:32] Christmas, and Easter. Those last three

[10:35] holiday meals, we served over 5,000

[10:38] people. The majority of those meals are

[10:40] delivered. Okay, we deliver to all of

[10:42] Winnebago County. So, I would say

[10:44] probably 90% of them were delivered. Um,

[10:47] Thanksgiving alone last year, we did

[10:49] over 2500 meals. So, we're we're

[10:51] expecting another another big one. Um,

[10:55] how else do we feed people? Our

[10:57] community cafe is is um open 5 days a

[11:00] week. People can just come in between 8

[11:02] and 5 and just get something to eat. Um,

[11:06] during the cold months, we have uh

[11:07] chili, bowls of soup, um what whatever

[11:10] we might have. Um there's no really set

[11:13] menu. It's u what was donated to us is

[11:15] what we pass along. So,

[11:19] um, so that's how we that's how we feed

[11:21] the hungry. Um, cure the sick. Well, we

[11:24] have our own St. Francis free clinic.

[11:25] The the clinic is the clinic is a true

[11:27] gem on the on the campus. Uh, in 19 or

[11:31] in 2021,

[11:32] we had about a little over 800 patients.

[11:36] This year we'll do over 2500. Wow.

[11:38] >> It is uh it is it has just gone gone

[11:41] crazy. Last year in 2025, we did over $2

[11:44] million worth of free healthcare to the

[11:46] community. Um I one thing I should

[11:49] mention, our services are primarily for

[11:53] Wnebago and the surrounding counties

[11:56] which would be out of gami, Kelly,

[11:58] Fondelac, Green Lake, Washier in Waka.

[12:02] So um so where the Wnebago is a center

[12:04] then and then the counties around that's kind of our core that's where we

[12:09] offer the services to. Um it doesn't

[12:11] mean any you know people from other

[12:13] areas can't can have it but there can

[12:15] use it but um we're we're completely

[12:20] privately funded. It's we strictly

[12:22] private donations. We receive no subsid

[12:25] um um we're not subsidized by the

[12:27] government at all. Um so um because

[12:31] that's where our donor bases. That's who

[12:33] we that's who we try to serve. So our

[12:35] clinic has many special services. It's run much like an urgent care. Um,

[12:40] it's open five days a week, Monday

[12:42] through Friday. We stagger the hours and

[12:44] we stagger them on purpose. On Monday

[12:45] and Thursday, it's open in the evening

[12:47] from 5:00 to 7:00. On Tuesday or on

[12:49] Tuesday and Wednesday, it's open in the

[12:51] afternoon from 1:00 to 4:00. And on

[12:53] Friday mornings or Fridays, it's it's

[12:55] open in the morning from 8:00 to 11:00,

[12:58] the same time our pantry is. So, people

[13:00] can come and get food and also see a

[13:02] doctor. And it's also open one Saturday, a month. We actually have a

[13:06] sleep specialist comes in and he will um

[13:09] he will assess you and should you need a

[13:11] CPAT machine, we have free CPAT

[13:13] machines. We have our own pharmacy. So

[13:15] we have most of the major um ma major

[13:19] prescriptions including insulin and

[13:20] again that is that is completely free.

[13:23] So we draw we draw labs, we draw we draw

[13:27] blood and um and collect other samples

[13:30] and and specimens. Uh we have great

[13:32] partners with um Ascension Mercy,

[13:36] Aurora, and uh soon to be Theta Care.

[13:38] Now, if they have a hospital in town,

[13:40] they're going to start up January 1st

[13:42] being a partner. So, they do our lab

[13:43] work for us. They also will do imaging.

[13:46] So, if you come in and you fell and you

[13:48] maybe hurt a wrist and the doctor says,

[13:49] "I think we need a picture of this or

[13:52] you got something else going on." Doctor

[13:54] says, "You might want a cat scan or an

[13:55] MRI." we can give you somewhat of a

[13:58] vulture and you can take it to one of

[14:00] those providers and and get the imaging

[14:02] done for nothing as long as you come

[14:04] through through um St. Francis Free

[14:06] Clinic. So again um open to all. We have

[14:10] a translation system. We have a

[14:12] translation service

[14:14] um that Ascension has helped us out with

[14:16] so um so we can uh we can see patients

[14:19] and we don't have that barrier of uh of

[14:21] communication. So we have about 25

[14:24] health providers between uh MDs, nurse

[14:27] practitioners, physician assistants and

[14:30] RNs. Uh we have two psychiatrists.

[14:33] Um

[14:35] we have uh we have foot doctor, we have

[14:37] kidney doctor. Um we started up our

[14:41] dental office. So we have uh we have

[14:44] dental hygiene two times a month. And um

[14:47] we're trying to get our dental service

[14:51] going. We had a dentist and then he took

[14:52] a job with uh Marquette Dental School.

[14:55] So he moved in Milwaukee and they come

[14:57] and they go, but we we'll get it open on

[14:59] a consistent basis soon. Um so uh the

[15:02] clinic again is uh just doing doing very

[15:05] well and offering a lot of help to the

[15:06] community.

[15:08] Taking the stranger. So this one can be

[15:11] a little confusing to people. Um but we are not a shelter. We don't we don't

[15:16] identify as a shelter. we identify as a

[15:19] life enrichment center. And um what that

[15:21] means is people who are experiencing

[15:26] homelessness, people who are coming out

[15:28] of incarceration, people who are maybe

[15:31] days away from being evicted,

[15:34] what whatever

[15:36] 100% of the people that come to us are

[15:38] homeless. Okay? Nobody comes to us

[15:41] because they have a place to stay. They

[15:43] apply for the program. And what what the

[15:46] program is is we we want to take you

[15:48] from point A, where you're at, to point

[15:50] B. And point B is independent living to

[15:53] get you back on your feet. And um um if

[15:58] you are ready in your life to start

[16:02] making some some um better decisions,

[16:05] change some of the habits, change the

[16:07] lifestyle that's maybe taking you to

[16:09] where you are. If you're if you're ready

[16:11] to do that, you're accepted into our

[16:13] program and the housing comes with it.

[16:17] Okay. So, what does that mean? It means

[16:19] that there'll be a daily structure in

[16:21] your life where you have to get up and

[16:24] you have to go to work. You have to if

[16:25] you have to be employed if you're going

[16:27] to stay with us. If you're going to be

[16:28] part of our life enrichment program, um

[16:30] you have to make your bed in the

[16:31] morning. You have to make your own

[16:33] breakfast. Go to work. You have to be to

[16:35] dinner at 5:00. That's our checkpoint

[16:38] for everybody who stays with us.

[16:39] Currently, right now, we've got about 42

[16:41] or 43 people staying with us. That's

[16:43] men, women, and children. We have 12

[16:45] children in the house right now.

[16:47] So, you uh you have to be at a dinner.

[16:50] It's it's it's the time where we get a

[16:54] chance to see how you're doing. Uh make

[16:56] sure that the barriers that you have in

[16:58] your life or the bad habits that you

[17:00] have in your life have not come back. um

[17:04] to make sure that you learn how to live

[17:06] in community. So you eat together and

[17:08] then you do chores together and after

[17:10] that you have some free time before uh

[17:12] before the curfew. Curfew just changed

[17:14] last night as a matter of fact to to

[17:16] 7:30. It was 8:30. So it's it's putting

[17:21] a structure in in people's lives that

[17:23] they haven't had in a while. And I say

[17:25] this a 100 times a week. You change your

[17:27] habits, you change your life. And if

[17:29] they're ready to change their life to to get rid of the habits that have taken

[17:33] them to to where they are to that point

[17:35] A, then then we we bring them in.

[17:38] There's no timetable as to how long they

[17:40] can stay. Some some it might take 3

[17:43] months, some take might take six. And

[17:45] we've had people there as long as two

[17:46] years, depending on what situation they

[17:49] they're they're in. Um, some men come to

[17:52] us, they're $500, $5,000 behind in child

[17:55] support. You can stay there till that's

[17:57] paid up. But if you're working full-time

[18:00] and there's no cost of living at Father

[18:02] Cars, that $5,000 can go away pretty

[18:05] fast. You can get yourself out of debt

[18:07] pretty fast. Get some money in the bank.

[18:09] Um,

[18:11] if if substance abuse or sobriety is an

[18:14] issue in your life, you make sure that

[18:15] you you can you can um stay clean and

[18:18] stay sober. Uh I would say with men,

[18:21] that's that's probably 99% of them are

[18:24] coming with some type of a drug or

[18:25] alcohol problem. Women is different.

[18:27] women is probably 60% and the other 40%

[18:30] are coming in for other different

[18:32] reasons. Unfortunately, domestic abuse

[18:34] is one of them. Um, so

[18:38] we do we do um background checks and um

[18:43] Father Cars is 99% volunteer. Okay. As

[18:47] the executive director, I collect a

[18:49] salary. Emily, who runs our clinic, the

[18:52] clinic director, she collects a salary.

[18:54] And then Nick, the guy who runs our life

[18:56] enrichment program, the director of

[18:57] that, he collects a statement. Okay.

[19:00] Everybody else there is a volunteer and

[19:02] there's 30, 40 people there every single

[19:04] day. So my priority, my number one

[19:06] priority is the safety of our volunteers

[19:09] to make sure that we have a safe campus.

[19:11] So we do background checks before you're

[19:12] allowed into allowed into the the life

[19:15] enrichment program.

[19:17] So, I'll answer some questions about

[19:19] that um uh in a little bit, but um

[19:24] we um we have we have the um the

[19:29] possibility of a of a man with children

[19:32] to come in as well. We have we have one

[19:34] uh we have one area that we can put that

[19:36] in if we ever have that scenario. And

[19:37] we've had it in the four plus years I've

[19:39] been director. I think we've had it

[19:40] three times. So um and the life

[19:44] enrichment also goes as far regarding

[19:46] the community. There's a lot of

[19:47] different ways you can enrich you enrich

[19:49] their lives and volunteering is one of

[19:51] them. So we try to we try to make sure

[19:53] that people understand how they can

[19:54] volunteer, how they how they can give of

[19:57] their time, their important time, how

[19:58] they can give from the heart. So and

[20:00] because we are uh privately funded, we

[20:03] find ways to touch their hearts and

[20:05] believe in what we do. The other thing

[20:07] that we do is we have two big community

[20:10] events. One is Christmas for kids and

[20:12] the other one is carnival for kids.

[20:14] Christmas for kids is people families

[20:17] come in um they get their own personal

[20:20] elf when they walk in. The elf takes

[20:22] them to breakfast and they go into uh

[20:24] the chapel and see a a puppet show. Then

[20:26] they go to a big table and they make an

[20:29] arts and crafts project. They go see

[20:32] Santa Claus and eventually they end up

[20:34] in the the clinic and we separate the

[20:37] children from from mom and dad. and mom

[20:40] and dad go in the toy land and pick out

[20:42] some presents for the kids and the

[20:43] children go in uh to a different area

[20:46] and they pick out a present or two for

[20:47] themselves and maybe something else for

[20:49] mom and dad. We in turn wrap those while

[20:51] they're separated and then when they

[20:53] come together at the front door of the

[20:54] clinic we've just provided their clinic

[20:56] their their their Christmas for them.

[20:58] They've got they've got wrap presents.

[21:00] Carnival for kids is uh something we've

[21:03] started. We've had four of them and uh

[21:05] the last two years we've had about 3,500

[21:07] people at it. It is a free carnival,

[21:10] full-blown carnival, six major rides, um

[21:14] bouncy house, stock cars, um obstacle

[21:18] course, all kinds of kids games. Uh with

[21:21] last year we had 15 different agencies

[21:23] for the from the community there to

[21:24] represent themselves. Little activities

[21:27] at each tent to keep the kids busy, but

[21:29] they could also um the the resource um

[21:33] uh the resource organizations could tell

[21:35] mom and dad about what they can do and

[21:37] how they can help them. So it was truly

[21:39] a community event and um we're we're

[21:42] really proud of our carnival. Um again,

[21:45] it's absolutely free. It was about a

[21:47] $40,000 event to put on last year. did

[21:50] not cost Father Cars $1. It was

[21:52] completely sponsored by uh organizations

[21:54] and corporations throughout throughout

[21:56] the city. So, the only thing it cost us

[21:58] was we we put it together. We we uh

[22:00] organized it and uh got all it was

[22:03] almost 200 volunteers put it on. So, um

[22:06] so it's it's really turned out to be a

[22:09] very cool event. So um you know again

[22:13] going back to our to our faith um for

[22:15] the Catholic community. We have mass

[22:17] every morning and um and Father Dave is

[22:20] there for spiritual direction which is a

[22:23] big plus for for the people that live

[22:25] with us. So that's Father Cars in a

[22:28] nutshell. I don't know if I could say it

[22:30] much faster. [laughter]

[22:33] >> Questions.

[22:35] If you do not have active employment and

[22:37] are seeking employment employment, are

[22:39] you able to apply for the life

[22:41] enrichment program?

[22:42] >> Oh, absolutely. Most people don't have

[22:44] jobs when they come to us. Yeah. It's um it's it's part of it's it's part

[22:48] of the the life enrichment is is getting

[22:51] them to believe in themselves. I don't

[22:53] want to say repurpose their life because

[22:55] I I I don't know that it's that, but

[22:57] they have to start believing in

[22:59] themselves and and to give them a

[23:01] chance. I mean, if they truly deep down

[23:05] want to start helping themselves, um, to

[23:08] give them a chance to to go out and and

[23:11] find employment and to start believing

[23:13] in themselves and and and knowing that,

[23:16] you know, without having the cost of

[23:18] living and the barrier of that dollar,

[23:19] the barrier of the bills that yes, they um and we're very good at finding

[23:23] people jobs. I mean, jobs sometimes can

[23:26] be swim, but um sometimes they have to

[23:28] be a little more open-minded about what

[23:30] they want to do. Um but you know there's

[23:33] a starting point for everything. So it's

[23:35] a good question.

[23:37] >> I have a question.

[23:38] >> Yeah.

[23:38] >> Um does father cars accommodate um those

[23:40] who have employment schedules that don't

[23:43] fit the structure you have in place?

[23:46] >> So we don't. Okay. To answer your

[23:48] question, uh we don't allow second and

[23:50] third shift. And the reason the reason

[23:53] we don't is that 5:00 dinner is very

[23:55] important to us and it's even more

[23:58] important to them. We have asked a lot

[24:00] of people who have gone through the

[24:02] program successfully and they've left

[24:04] and they we maybe see them a couple

[24:05] months later and and one of the first

[24:07] things that they say is how important

[24:09] that dinner was to sit down and have

[24:11] somebody to eat with because when they

[24:13] leave most of them are going home and

[24:15] having dinner by themselves.

[24:17] >> They don't understand the importance of that community. So,

[24:23] we've we've tried to alter it and it

[24:25] really has come back and and not only

[24:27] bid us, but has not been as effective as

[24:29] it has been when we have it. And because

[24:31] most of them are unemployed,

[24:34] >> um we can we can make it so they have a

[24:36] first gift job. So,

[24:42] » so you're not subsidized by the

[24:43] government at all. So, everything is

[24:44] from donations that you

[24:46] >> 100%.

[24:47] >> That's amazing. We have a very small

[24:48] operating budget because we have such a

[24:50] small staff.

[24:51] >> Yeah.

[24:51] >> Now, our operating budget for 26 was uh

[24:54] I think it's $565,000.

[24:56] So, if you look at everything that we do

[24:58] and what we provide,

[25:00] >> that's a very small operating budget.

[25:03] >> Doesn't say if you're talking about 2

[25:05] million in healthcare, you know,

[25:07] services provided or donated to us.

[25:09] >> Yeah.

[25:09] >> Oh, I have 40ome people.

[25:11] >> Impressive.

[25:13] And and I say this as humbly as I can,

[25:15] but but it's a fact that our our our

[25:18] percentage of men who come to us

[25:21] homeless and leave is about 80% that

[25:24] leave with with with a place to live.

[25:27] Now women is a bit lower. Okay? And

[25:29] that's that's something we're we're not

[25:31] comfortable with. It's only it's only in

[25:33] like the 60% range and we're trying to

[25:35] get better at that. Okay? And and we're

[25:38] a small ministry. I mean, we're we're a

[25:40] large ministry, but we're we're really

[25:42] in the whole scheme of things, we're kind of a small ministry because

[25:45] of, you know, just mostly volunteers.

[25:49] Um,

[25:51] we know who we are and we know who we're

[25:52] not. So, so we do have to be a little

[25:55] selective about people that come in.

[25:58] People who are at the edge the at um

[26:00] past their working years, we're we're

[26:02] probably not going to be the place for

[26:04] them because there's really no end game,

[26:06] okay? We're where they're at in their

[26:07] life.

[26:09] They're they're if if they can't afford

[26:11] independent living now, just by living

[26:14] with us for a while is not going to help

[26:15] you. Okay?

[26:17] >> We're more about total healing. We're

[26:19] not there just to put a band-aid on

[26:21] something. And going back to um

[26:26] the way a person heals is they have to

[26:29] become completely honest with

[26:31] themselves. They have to understand who

[26:33] they are and where they are with their

[26:34] life and what they're doing. If if they

[26:37] keep if they keep having all these

[26:39] fantasies about what they want to be,

[26:41] but they're not but their actions aren't

[26:43] following their their thoughts or their dreams, they're never going to

[26:46] get there. They have to to get them to

[26:48] be completely honest with themselves.

[26:50] That's when the healing starts. And

[26:52] that's what we have. That's what we do.

[26:53] That's what we try to do.

[26:55] >> It's um I'm an alcoholic, so I

[26:56] understand what it's like to hit rock

[26:58] bottom. And and rock bottom is it it's

[27:01] important, you know, it's almost

[27:02] necessary to to get there. So we we try

[27:07] to take them and let them understand as

[27:09] humbly as they can like this is where

[27:11] you're at. Where do you want to be? Let

[27:13] us take you there, but you have to

[27:15] understand who you are at this point and

[27:17] we'll get you better. So

[27:22] >> that's amazing.

[27:24] So if people want to help,

[27:27] >> volunteer. Um if you know if if if

[27:31] giving of your heart is is there give of your time you know if give of

[27:36] your resources

[27:38] um

[27:40] >> I don't know that anybody has ever come

[27:41] to father cars volunteered and hated it.

[27:43] I I just don't think that's true. Even

[27:45] the people that come in for community

[27:47] service or community service they still

[27:50] continue to come back even after they're

[27:52] done.

[27:53] >> It's a great community. It really is. I

[27:55] mean, you can there's there's a sense of love there. And, you know, I'm I'm

[27:59] going to pat the Lord on on his back for

[28:01] that one. That's what I believe. But

[28:04] there it it is really a cool community

[28:06] to be part of. So, if you if if you're

[28:09] looking if you got an emptiness in your

[28:11] life right now, that's how you enrich

[28:13] it. Come and give up your time. Just

[28:15] come and work in the food pantry. Couple

[28:18] hours a month. Um you play piano, come

[28:21] and play come and play piano some

[28:23] morning at pantry. I had a guy call the

[28:25] other day. He says, "Can I come and play

[28:26] piano for your Thanksgiving dinner?"

[28:28] Absolutely. Come and play. Um, so I

[28:32] would say give up some weight. Give of

[28:34] yourself some way. That's the way you

[28:36] enrich your life. So,

[28:39] >> and monetary. Do you have a place for

[28:42] monetary donations as well?

[28:44] >> Yeah, you can either go online and and

[28:47] uh donate online. Otherwise, you can

[28:48] come right to Father Cars. I'd love to

[28:50] give tours. You know, come and see what

[28:52] we're all about. I'll give you a tour of

[28:53] the place and um you know there's a lot

[28:55] of ways you can donate while you're

[28:56] there. Um we have a Facebook page uh you

[29:00] know website uh it's fathercars.org

[29:03] so all spelt out fathercars.org. So um

[29:07] there's a lot of different ways to give.

[29:10] >> Thank you so much. Learned so much.

[29:14] >> I drive past father cars all the time

[29:16] and I now I know much more. So thank you

[29:19] so much. I I started volunteering there

[29:21] about 8 years ago and I was blown away

[29:23] by what they did though. I couldn't

[29:25] believe it and that's that's the biggest

[29:27] comment I get after every tour is I

[29:30] never knew you the scope services.

[29:33] >> Yeah.

[29:35] >> Well, thank you so much.

[29:36] >> Thanks for the opportunity. Appreciate

[29:38] it. Thank you for what you know.

[29:41] >> Thank you.

[29:42] You're welcome to stay for the rest of

[29:44] our

[29:47] [laughter]

[29:49] >> I haven't seen my wife in 3 days.

[29:52] >> Thank you so much.

[29:53] >> Thank you.

[29:54] >> So now we get to discuss and vote on

[29:56] November and December's meetings because

[29:58] usually I mean it's always the fourth

[30:02] Monday and that's usually the week of

[30:05] Christmas and Thanksgiving. So, we need

[30:09] to talk about if we want to do those

[30:11] weeks, which I don't think we do. So,

[30:13] let's actually look at the dates.

[30:15] >> Yes, the the Thanksgiving ends up

[30:18] following the Monday before

[30:20] Thanksgiving.

[30:21] >> Um, so

[30:24] >> obviously staff will be here as needed

[30:27] that week. We are scheduled, but really

[30:30] also it comes down to the

[30:33] >> uh commitment of of the members as well.

[30:36] And then I believe the December one,

[30:40] it's on the 28th. So it's the it's the

[30:42] week after Christmas,

[30:44] >> right?

[30:44] >> But so yeah, I I think I move that we

[30:49] cancel both of those meetings.

[30:51] >> Anyone want to second that?

[30:53] >> Second. Okay, good job.

[30:54] >> Thanks. [laughter] Say without a

[30:56] question mark.

[30:57] >> No.

[30:59] >> Um,

[31:01] do you want to have any further

[31:02] discussion?

[31:04] >> No. Do you want to you look at you have

[31:06] discussion videos?

[31:07] >> No, I don't

[31:10] December one makes sense to me, but like

[31:12] November we just think everyone will be

[31:14] out of town.

[31:15] >> Yeah, I think I mean cuz it's the Monday

[31:17] before and there's always people are

[31:19] traveling and

[31:21] >> it it tends to be a heavy travel week.

[31:24] It doesn't always fall the Monday before

[31:26] Thanksgiving. Sometimes it's the Monday

[31:28] after. This here it is the Monday

[31:30] before. Um, so it really comes down to

[31:35] >> again this committee and their

[31:36] availability.

[31:38] >> I have not booked anyone for November at

[31:41] this time because I knew we were having

[31:42] this discussion. So I don't have anyone

[31:45] coming in yet.

[31:47] >> Um certainly I I do get a little

[31:50] concerned about quorum during some of

[31:52] those weeks.

[31:52] >> Yeah. And since we've been having some

[31:54] quorum

[31:56] quandries, um I think that maybe

[32:01] the November meeting we should also just

[32:03] mix it.

[32:04] >> Okay. Well, that's the motion on the

[32:06] table. So, um I will call a roll.

[32:11] Cramp

[32:12] >> I

[32:12] >> Abacher

[32:13] >> I.

[32:14] >> Tolman

[32:15] >> I.

[32:16] >> Dang.

[32:16] >> I Okay, thank you. Okay. So, now we have

[32:21] discuss future DEI committee projects.

[32:24] So, I had the amazing opportunity to

[32:28] chat with Dr. Pang from the Wnebago Area

[32:31] Literacy Council. She's come in here

[32:33] before. She's great. Um, we discussed a

[32:37] lot of things. So, right now the WALC is

[32:41] drowning in support needs because

[32:43] they're they're mostly there to teach

[32:45] language learning classes, but they're

[32:47] also assisting people with all these

[32:49] everyday tasks like translating forms

[32:51] and helping people pay bills, stuff that

[32:53] isn't really in their

[32:56] like wheel. It's in their they can do

[32:57] it, but it's not like why they're there.

[33:00] Um, so this is why language access is

[33:03] crucial and not something to be put on

[33:05] the back burner. Um because the

[33:07] importance of communication cannot be

[33:09] overstated. Dr. Pang made it very clear

[33:11] that doing something at all is

[33:13] preferable to doing everything

[33:15] perfectly. So we just have to start. Um

[33:19] she also noted that this committee kind

[33:21] of exists in a vacuum and I agree with

[33:23] her. Um as a group we typically only see

[33:25] like the leader like we saw Jim and he's

[33:28] super nice but we don't see typically

[33:30] see or interact with the people that the

[33:33] organizations serve. Um, so I think

[33:37] maybe one time in the 2 and a half years

[33:39] I've been here that there was a service

[33:41] user speak like here with the executive

[33:44] director or whatever. So I think we need

[33:48] to go out into the community with our

[33:49] DEI hats on. We need to be visible in

[33:52] the city and learn as much as we can

[33:54] from the people who need DEI policies.

[33:56] So we need to make marginalized people

[33:58] visible to the people who are always

[34:01] centered. Um, she had a bunch of other

[34:03] ideas. In a lot of in some cities and

[34:06] municip municipalities, radio

[34:08] announcements like kind of on YouTube

[34:10] are a thing that a lot of um different

[34:13] communities who speak different

[34:14] languages use. So, it'll just be like a

[34:16] 30-se secondond little clip on YouTube

[34:18] like here's what's going on today in the

[34:20] city, but like in Mong. Um, and so she

[34:25] said that that's really effective for a

[34:27] lot of different language groups and

[34:28] especially because a lot of the cultures

[34:31] in Oshkosh have mostly oral traditions.

[34:33] So a lot of the older people can't read

[34:36] the languages that they speak. Um, so

[34:39] this makes it more accessible for

[34:40] everyone and it's like a quick little

[34:42] thing to do. Um, she also mentioned

[34:45] plain language training which I didn't

[34:47] really know anything about. Um, it's not

[34:49] like dumbed down language. It's stripped

[34:51] of confusing and complicated niche terms

[34:54] or jargon so lay people can understand

[34:55] it. And if you go to centerforplay plain

[34:58] language.org, they have all of these

[35:00] examples of like what a form looked like

[35:02] before they turned it into plain

[35:04] language, what a form looked like after.

[35:07] It's night and day. The form and it's

[35:09] the form before legally all this jargon

[35:12] there to for and all this stuff. and

[35:14] afterwards it just you could get to the

[35:17] information without having to like claw

[35:18] through the jargon. Um, so that's

[35:22] something to keep in mind. There is

[35:23] plain language training is available. So

[35:25] that might be something that some people

[35:28] who help create the website can can look

[35:31] into. But we also can't rely on Google

[35:34] Translate to translate the city website.

[35:36] Um because it rely it results in

[35:39] inaccurate translations and it requires

[35:42] users to click on a bunch of stuff. I I

[35:44] tested it out with my phone and I had to

[35:47] click like six things to make it turn

[35:50] into a different language. So and it

[35:52] also can give poor translations. So, I'm

[35:55] learning Swahili right now. So, kiga

[35:59] kalamu literally means to throw a pen.

[36:02] But that's how you say you're firing

[36:04] someone. Like if you fire them, you like

[36:06] throw your pen at them, which I think is

[36:07] fun. Um, but if you didn't know that

[36:10] about Swahili and you just saw Kiga

[36:12] Kamu, you'd be like, "They threw a pen?

[36:15] What?" So that's why non-human

[36:18] translations don't really capture the

[36:20] nuance and meaning of a language. Like

[36:22] the difference between must and should.

[36:25] If you say you must pay this by the

[36:27] first, that's very different than saying

[36:29] you should pay this by the first, right?

[36:31] Because one can result in you getting

[36:32] evicted.

[36:34] >> Um question.

[36:36] >> Yeah. Uh since I'm new

[36:37] >> Mhm.

[36:38] >> Uh what what is the we're talking about

[36:41] the city website? Yeah. What's the the

[36:43] goal here?

[36:44] >> Kind of everything right now.

[36:45] >> Yeah. Talking about everything, but I am getting to the city website. So

[36:50] like what was the point of the interview

[36:53] with

[36:53] >> So I talked with her because I we the

[36:56] last meeting we had we were all we all

[36:58] talked about what issue in the city is

[37:01] most important to you right now. What do

[37:03] you think that the DEI committee could

[37:04] be doing better?

[37:06] >> Um and so I'm choosing to focus on

[37:09] language access stuff. So I decid I I

[37:12] question that I asked um Dr. Pang was

[37:15] like what can we take off your plate?

[37:17] like what would what would it make what

[37:19] can the city do to make your work

[37:21] easier?

[37:23] >> And she said a lot of it is like people

[37:25] accessing city services through the

[37:27] website.

[37:28] >> So

[37:28] >> maybe maybe a different way to rephrase

[37:30] it. What is the city currently

[37:32] outsourcing to

[37:33] >> exactly? Yeah. What is the city

[37:34] currently like kind of relying on these

[37:36] outside organizations for?

[37:39] >> So although when you say forms and

[37:41] things that's people have forms they

[37:44] need completed.

[37:45] >> Yeah. taking them to

[37:47] >> they take them there and then they say,

[37:49] "Yeah, I don't understand this form. Can

[37:51] you please help me fill it out?"

[37:52] [clears throat]

[37:52] >> Yeah. Because the forms are not

[37:54] available on the website in in most

[37:56] languages.

[37:57] >> So almost 7% of Oshkosh residents above

[38:00] the age of five speak a language other

[38:02] than English at home. That's 7% of the

[38:04] population who's being left out of

[38:05] participating in some city government or

[38:08] services. Um,

[38:11] so we need to identify people and groups

[38:13] who have the time, knowledge, and

[38:14] capacity to assist with translating

[38:16] stuff. Um, there's lots of consequences

[38:19] of lack of ang language access, like if

[38:22] there's a weather emergency, like when

[38:24] we have the tornado, I didn't, my next

[38:26] door neighbors speak Swahili almost

[38:28] exclusively. And I don't know if like is

[38:32] are the radio like when your phone is

[38:34] like whack whack does like it tell you

[38:36] in Swahili cuz I know for a fact that

[38:38] iOS Apple does not support any African

[38:41] languages. Um legal issues if you don't

[38:44] know how to pay a parking ticket. Um

[38:48] feeling excluded from your community.

[38:50] That's the most that's why we're here.

[38:52] So people who don't speak English as a

[38:54] first language are not stupid. English

[38:57] is incredibly difficult to learn. I've

[38:59] been speaking it for 41 years and I

[39:00] still mess up all the time. Um, it takes

[39:03] seven years of dedicated study to become

[39:05] fluent in a language. So,

[39:08] we can't expect people to know things

[39:10] the second that they get here. So, the

[39:12] purpose of the DEI committee, this is

[39:14] directly from the city website.

[39:16] The DEI committee shall act as an

[39:18] advisory body to the city manager and

[39:20] common council in providing comment and

[39:22] support regarding appropriate strategies

[39:23] to develop activities, resources, and

[39:25] services that promote a positive

[39:28] community environment of equity,

[39:29] inclusion, and celebrate the diverse

[39:31] identities of the city of Oshkosh. So, I

[39:34] think we really need to like

[39:36] read that a bunch to ourselves and

[39:38] dedicate ourselves to this purpose. So,

[39:42] all of that to say,

[39:44] I think as a committee, we need to each

[39:47] find an organization that focuses on a

[39:50] marginalized group or a marginalized

[39:55] sector of our city and meet the people

[39:58] who use who

[40:00] use that organization. Attend a meeting

[40:02] if it's appropriate. Talk to people in

[40:05] the community about DEI stuff. Go to

[40:07] where people are. like we can't expect

[40:09] everyone to come to us. We need to go to

[40:12] them. So I understand that I'm kind of

[40:16] being mean to Oshkosh right now a little

[40:17] bit. But we need to understand the pro

[40:21] what the problems are before we can fix

[40:22] the problems. And we can do better than

[40:26] what we've been doing. So let's do it.

[40:28] Let's move forward. I believe in us. So

[40:32] I would like to make a recommendation to

[40:35] city council.

[40:37] The recommendation I would like to make

[40:39] is the DEIA committee recommends that

[40:42] the city hires multilingual speakers to

[40:44] translate the most often used pages on

[40:46] the city website into Mong, Spanish,

[40:48] Swahili, and Arabic, the four most

[40:50] widely spoken languages in Oshkosh after

[40:53] English. Does anyone have any thoughts

[40:56] about

[40:56] >> Can you read that again?

[40:57] >> Yeah. So recommends that the city hires

[41:00] multilingual speakers to translate the

[41:03] most often used pages on the city

[41:05] website into M Spanish, Swahilian

[41:07] Arabic, the four most widely spoken

[41:09] languages in Oshkosh after English.

[41:12] >> What does the workflow look like for

[41:14] that? So like I'm a person

[41:17] >> and I need to access something on the

[41:18] website and I speak Swahili. M

[41:22] >> so I understand the recommendation but

[41:25] in [clears throat] terms of feasibility

[41:28] >> what do you mean

[41:28] >> like website design?

[41:30] >> Yeah.

[41:30] >> Looking at

[41:32] >> is that actually accessible? So like if

[41:34] I log in to the city of Ashkosh website

[41:38] >> how am I going to get to the pages that

[41:40] are in the language that I can read? So

[41:42] like I understand we're making the

[41:44] recommendation. I would assume that it

[41:45] would have like we would I mean I'm not

[41:47] the web designer person but I'm assuming

[41:48] it would have at the top like it would

[41:50] say like Kuahili and then it would say

[41:52] like have the links in Swahili and then

[41:56] or like it would just say like Kswuahili

[41:58] and then you could click there and it

[41:59] would take you to the version of the

[42:00] website probably. This is just an

[42:03] >> Yeah. What resources do we already have

[42:06] accessible in any of those languages?

[42:08] >> None.

[42:09] >> Zero. The website is only able to be

[42:12] translated through Google Trans

[42:13] >> Yeah. It's just reliant on browsers

[42:14] right now.

[42:15] >> Yes. Which I don't like

[42:16] >> and that doesn't work for if it's a PDF

[42:18] download or something like that. So

[42:20] that's

[42:20] >> Yeah. And it takes like so many clicks

[42:22] to and I and I am a intelligent person

[42:25] and I could

[42:26] >> if someone needed to access information.

[42:28] Do we have physical forms available in

[42:32] other languages?

[42:32] >> Yes.

[42:34] >> I don't also are there any translators

[42:36] that are available like phone

[42:37] translators for that who work for the

[42:39] city? We also, sorry, this is going to

[42:40] be a nitpicky. A translator and an

[42:42] interpreter are not the same thing.

[42:44] >> So, um,

[42:46] >> I mean, maybe what I'm hearing too is is

[42:49] do we maybe need to take a a preliminary

[42:52] step and propose like hiring a

[42:54] consultant to audit first or something

[42:57] like that? I don't know.

[42:58] >> I feel like we don't have there's no

[43:01] budget for that, I don't think.

[43:03] >> But would there be a budget to hire

[43:05] multi like

[43:06] >> Mhm. There's not a there's not a budget,

[43:10] right? Like there's not a line item.

[43:13] Like so I can make the recommendation,

[43:15] but is it a realistic?

[43:18] >> If like

[43:18] >> I feel like I realistic here for a long

[43:20] time and I really just want to

[43:23] >> I want to take Dr. Pang's

[43:26] dos into consideration and like we need

[43:29] to do a thing and I feel like this is

[43:32] like the tiniest ask. It's so tiny like

[43:36] you you could

[43:37] >> the recommendation is a tiny ask the

[43:40] actual

[43:42] implementation

[43:43] and somebody who designs my website

[43:46] that's a significant amount of bandwidth

[43:48] I'm using Sony

[43:50] >> I used to work in corporate um

[43:52] [clears throat and laughter] please

[43:52] excuse my corporate terms

[43:55] >> but you know what I mean

[43:56] >> but I mean I think that's that's what

[43:58] we're recommending right is we're asking

[44:00] city manager or whoever uh

[44:02] >> like uh

[44:03] >> cuz this needs to happen. say do a

[44:06] feasibility study and say how much would

[44:08] this cost either and that's why I'm

[44:09] saying I don't know if the first step is

[44:11] you need to hire these people or if the

[44:12] first step is we need to bring in you

[44:14] again it's not up to us but what we

[44:16] would recommend

[44:18] >> doing is say the first step is actually

[44:20] maybe you need to hire a consultant to

[44:22] audit cuz even even as we've seen it's

[44:24] hard for us to have the time or it's

[44:26] hard for us to outsource to someone like

[44:28] the literacy council to say like okay we

[44:30] just hope you do this on your free time

[44:31] you know [clears throat]

[44:32] >> um

[44:34] >> and right we're an advisory committee.

[44:35] We can't actually

[44:38] the actionable things that we can do.

[44:41] >> It's ultimately the council,

[44:42] >> right? Yeah.

[44:43] >> What do you have a question?

[44:44] >> Yeah. Um, so what percent of that 7% can

[44:48] actually read in their like first

[44:50] language?

[44:50] >> I am not sure. I could not find that

[44:52] statistic.

[44:53] >> But did you say that like most adults

[44:55] can't read in their

[44:56] >> I said that so like especially for um

[44:58] older monk people, it's mostly an oral

[45:00] tradition and for older people who speak

[45:03] as well. Yeah.

[45:04] >> Um, so that's why like another easy I

[45:08] mean easy thing I just

[45:11] >> I think that we could make the

[45:13] recommendation and then they can

[45:17] they

[45:18] >> we make more than one recommendation.

[45:20] >> I mean yeah we've only ever made too

[45:23] like I like it's not specifically the

[45:27] website it's that communication access

[45:29] is a barrier.

[45:30] >> Yeah. And this is why the first step.

[45:33] >> So the website is great, but if I have a

[45:36] hard time reading my native language, I

[45:39] am still going to need to physically go

[45:42] somewhere to have someone help me. So in

[45:46] terms of Ashka, like we already have a

[45:48] free legal clinic.

[45:50] >> We have other um organizations that

[45:54] offer like bring in your broken sewing

[45:57] machine. I'll help you fix it.

[45:58] Why can't we as a community

[46:02] utilize volunte make a recommendation

[46:04] that we're utilizing volunteers that

[46:06] already speak that language? I mean, we

[46:08] could utilize volunteers, but I wanted

[46:10] to pay people for their work. Um,

[46:14] especially cuz these will be people who

[46:16] are not white people. Um, and they're

[46:19] doing work. So, I mean, we could ask for

[46:23] volunteers, but I'd rather pay. I guess

[46:25] if I'm a community member and I know my

[46:28] brother's grandma needs help filling out

[46:31] a piece of paper, I will gladly give my

[46:33] free labor to help somebody fill out

[46:35] documentation.

[46:36] >> No, I understand that.

[46:37] >> I think we can hope for that. And this

[46:38] would this would be my reason to still

[46:40] lean towards recommending um because we

[46:42] don't want to depend on that cuz not

[46:44] everyone has that. Um and once that runs

[46:47] up, it still leaves people out to dry

[46:50] who depend on these services. And if

[46:52] this is something that you know whether

[46:54] it be city forms or whatever we can't

[46:57] just hope that someone has a family

[46:59] friend or someone to help them. Now by

[47:01] all means I I hope they do and there are

[47:03] a lot of people I think that's why how a

[47:05] lot of people are getting by right now

[47:06] >> but if it's dependent on that that still

[47:09] leaves a lot of people out to dry who

[47:11] don't have that. That would be my

[47:12] >> and I'm specifically saying that we

[47:14] should hire people because I was like

[47:18] Dr. Pang has all these volunteers who

[47:22] work with her doing all this stuff

[47:25] already.

[47:27] Kind of like because the city isn't

[47:29] doing it, she's like helping people do

[47:32] it, but that's like not her job. So,

[47:35] >> does the literacy council have

[47:38] defined parameters on the services that

[47:41] they provide?

[47:42] >> Yes. And she said they are drowning in

[47:44] support needs and that this would be

[47:45] something that would be great if she

[47:46] didn't have to do anymore. Are there

[47:48] other resources within the Ash community

[47:51] besides? So I hear feasibility study.

[47:54] None of these are an immediate or

[47:57] efficient fix to the accessibility

[47:59] problem, right? So we have like it's a

[48:02] three-legged stool. The website being

[48:04] redone is great. Having people in the

[48:07] community available to help our

[48:08] community members is also great. What's

[48:11] the third thing? Right? Because if one

[48:14] of those fails, like what is our Swiss

[48:17] cheese?

[48:18] >> Well, currently we don't have any of

[48:19] them. So,

[48:20] >> and that's why I'd be an advocate for

[48:21] moving in that direction. My my only

[48:24] question going back to my initial point,

[48:25] I I just don't know if the first action

[48:27] step is hire these or if the first

[48:29] action step is

[48:30] >> bring someone into audit to even see.

[48:33] >> Yeah,

[48:33] >> you could do both at the same time

[48:35] realistically. But

[48:36] >> if our [clears throat] recommendation is

[48:38] y'all need to look at the website, isn't

[48:40] that the recommendation? Like do we have

[48:42] to tell the city council

[48:44] >> I mean yeah how to do their

[48:46] >> well we need to tell them specifically

[48:47] that this is what

[48:49] >> someone's going to have to it's going to

[48:50] take employee time and I doubt there's

[48:52] any employees who just have hours

[48:54] sitting by right now.

[48:55] >> Do we know what the most accessed pages

[48:58] on the website are?

[48:59] >> I'm guessing someone does but

[49:01] >> yeah someone that I'm sure our

[49:03] communications department does know.

[49:06] >> Um currently there is actually

[49:08] initiative to redo the website. I do not

[49:11] know specifically what that all entails.

[49:15] >> Uh what I could do is see if we could

[49:18] get someone from communications to share

[49:21] what that scope looks like right now cuz

[49:23] I I don't know what the scope looks like

[49:26] for the website. Um, I don't know if

[49:30] it's a redesign or an upgrade or or what

[49:32] the the intention exactly is, but I

[49:35] think um my recommendation regarding

[49:38] your recommendation

[49:40] >> is that um

[49:42] >> I see if I can get someone from

[49:43] communications to come to our next

[49:45] meeting

[49:46] >> uh understand maybe what the scope right

[49:48] now is of the project

[49:50] >> and that also then if we put your

[49:52] recommendation on the next agenda that

[49:55] gives people a little bit of time to

[49:57] think about do I agree with this

[49:59] recommendation since we didn't say we

[50:01] were going to take any action today. So

[50:04] I I want to be careful that and I

[50:08] understand it's only a recommendation

[50:10] but this way we can um put it on the

[50:13] next one that we are going to consider a

[50:15] recommendation

[50:17] um and we'll figure out how to write

[50:18] that off if it's exactly your verbiage

[50:21] >> um or maybe and I put in the agenda or

[50:23] similar

[50:24] >> so that we can

[50:27] >> finish vetting this out without putting

[50:29] everybody into a are we recommending or

[50:32] not recommending right this minute.

[50:34] >> Okay.

[50:34] >> If that is comfortable.

[50:37] >> And yeah, I like I like bringing someone

[50:39] in from the communication engagement

[50:41] division um

[50:42] >> and seeing what is the current

[50:44] initiative.

[50:45] >> I I'm trying to think of it might be

[50:48] nice if we had some questions prepared

[50:50] for them ahead of time so they could

[50:51] come in with some of that.

[50:53] >> Um I'm sure we all have our own

[50:55] questions. That's one of the big one is

[50:57] like what's the website? But this this

[50:59] is beyond the website, you know, the

[51:00] communication engagement. This is just

[51:01] like a one first little step to

[51:04] >> Can you give me an example of what

[51:06] they're asking? A lot of this like in

[51:08] terms of social services, a lot of that

[51:09] is coming through the state of Wisconsin

[51:11] like access.gov. So we wouldn't have any

[51:13] control over that in terms of like if I

[51:15] need access to food share gradu

[51:20] when you go into the website it is just

[51:21] in English. So if you want it at the top

[51:23] it's like government what to do? No,

[51:25] [laughter] no, no. I understand that.

[51:26] But I'm saying like

[51:27] >> so those type of services I don't think

[51:28] what we're talking about

[51:29] >> literacy council what you brought up as

[51:32] Dr. Pang said people are bringing in

[51:34] forms for us to help fill out. I am

[51:37] asking

[51:39] >> for that was just her example. She

[51:40] didn't tell

[51:41] >> cuz my question is if it's forms that

[51:43] are the city of Ashkosh owns right then

[51:47] we can say hey we're recommending this

[51:49] change the website. No how often do we

[51:51] go on the city of Ash website? I go on

[51:55] maybe twice a year. So if I'm looking

[51:57] for a specific form, that's why I'm just

[52:00] asking if Dr.

[52:01] >> P. I initially had had when I was

[52:04] working on this, I initially had like

[52:06] let's find out the four most used forms

[52:09] or whatever,

[52:10] >> which that could be something too. But

[52:13] also, if you try if you go to the

[52:14] website and you're trying to find the

[52:15] forms and the website is not in the

[52:17] language you speak, you can't find the

[52:18] forms in the first place. So

[52:20] >> sure, like

[52:21] >> but if we're So I think there's two

[52:23] different things. there's accessibility

[52:24] to the website and then the literacy

[52:26] council doesn't have enough bandwidth,

[52:28] right? Those are two separate things.

[52:30] >> So, this isn't really even about the

[52:31] literacy council as much. It's about

[52:33] like this is the notes that Dr. Pang had

[52:36] about things we can do to actually like

[52:40] make change in the city and a lot of it

[52:42] is the language access stuff and

[52:46] it's frustrating to go that there's it's

[52:49] only in English and there's so many

[52:51] people who don't speak English. So that

[52:53] is just why I was focusing just on the

[52:57] website in those four languages. I think

[52:59] that we can get real big with it at some

[53:03] point if we want to, but from my time on

[53:05] here, I have learned that things move

[53:08] very slowly and that you kind of just

[53:11] have to focus on little bits. And I

[53:14] think that this is a good bit to focus

[53:15] on. I think yeah, getting people in from

[53:17] the communities like what how like maybe we can even ask people who come in

[53:24] like can you just like test like use the

[53:26] website like give them a little homework

[53:28] like find this form

[53:30] >> and like see if it's possible see how

[53:34] easy it is. I don't think anybody

[53:35] disagrees with you that there's a access

[53:38] barrier. Like that's not a problem. But

[53:40] what is the purpose?

[53:43] >> We are recommending to city council that

[53:47] the website needs to be evaluated for

[53:50] >> language barriers and access and needs

[53:53] to be updated into the most common

[53:54] languages.

[53:55] >> Yeah.

[53:58] >> And I understand it's the government.

[53:59] I'm failing to see

[54:02] how that's the only thing we can do. I

[54:06] >> You never said it was the only thing we

[54:07] can do. It's not the only thing we can

[54:08] do. It's just this is my focus

[54:12] for that. We decided that we were each

[54:14] going to have a little focus. Mine is

[54:16] language access. I had seen Dr. Pang at

[54:20] an event. So, I set up a coffee with her

[54:23] because she knows a lot about language

[54:25] access in the city. So, that is why that

[54:28] is my focus.

[54:29] Okay. What have other members brought up

[54:32] as what like what their focus is?

[54:34] >> This this is a pretty new initiative.

[54:37] >> We've really actually had someone come

[54:38] back with

[54:40] >> a recommendation from their passionate

[54:43] area of focus.

[54:44] >> Yeah. So that's why this is mine.

[54:46] >> Right. Right.

[54:48] >> Andy, what was yours? Did you want to

[54:49] share what you

[54:51] >> um Yeah. And I haven't had much time to

[54:53] look into it. I have had some

[54:54] conversations. Um what I was focused on

[54:56] was uh civic engagement pipeline and

[54:58] making sure that we have more

[54:59] representation around town that people

[55:01] understand how to

[55:02] >> be civically engaged and access and have

[55:04] more um just diverse representation.

[55:09] >> Um one not to get off too much tangent

[55:12] but this could be something we could

[55:13] talk about another time. I don't have

[55:14] much information about this yet but you

[55:16] had brought up earlier

[55:18] as you were talking through about even

[55:21] just informing people that like this is

[55:22] here. We want to talk to people. I know

[55:25] some other boards and commissions do

[55:27] things in the public like I know the

[55:28] sustainability board like they will go

[55:30] table at um the farmers market and stuff

[55:34] like that. So I that was one idea I

[55:36] thought of like oh we could do things

[55:38] like that too. Maybe we could find

[55:39] spaces where we go out but again that

[55:41] takes volunteer time for us to say okay

[55:43] we have a couple of us who are going to

[55:44] go do something. Maybe we could even

[55:46] team up with some other ones who are

[55:48] doing stuff like that and say, "Hey,

[55:49] let's go out in the community and say,

[55:51] does this community, you know, what

[55:53] areas of Oshkosh feel inclusive or not

[55:55] inclusive and what should we be aware

[55:57] of?"

[55:58] >> Um, that was one idea.

[56:00] >> I enjoy volunteering. I don't have a

[56:02] problem also saying, "Hey, as a

[56:03] committee, shouldn't we be volunteering

[56:05] at the places we have people coming to

[56:07] tell us about?" So, if we want to meet

[56:09] the people,

[56:10] >> we go volunteer.

[56:12] >> That's something we talked about. Uh

[56:14] we've talked about this several times of

[56:15] even just instead of only just bringing

[56:17] people in us finding opportunities to

[56:19] say you even Jim tonight said you know

[56:21] give tours for us being able to reach

[56:23] out and say let's go take Dr. about that

[56:25] too of taking a tour through the

[56:27] literacy council coming back and

[56:29] reporting here and saying this is what I

[56:30] learned and essentially what I mean you

[56:32] didn't tour through the literacy council

[56:33] but you had a conversation essentially

[56:35] that going out talking and bringing that

[56:37] information back and saying now what do

[56:38] we do with this information

[56:40] >> or like OASD also right good resource

[56:43] they have a lot of people [laughter]

[56:45] >> so in terms of

[56:47] um when I

[56:51] hear we're making this recommendation to

[56:53] a government body knowing it's going to

[56:55] take time, money, and energy that the

[56:58] city doesn't have to spare at the

[57:01] moment. Is there a way that we can

[57:08] I'm trying to think of how to phrase

[57:09] this.

[57:11] What is the handoff? Right? Like we make

[57:13] the recommendation

[57:16] then what? Then it goes to city council,

[57:18] >> right? city council would then discuss

[57:21] what if any action they would like the

[57:23] city manager to take. Um because

[57:26] realistically

[57:28] it is an advisory group. So anything

[57:31] that's recommended

[57:33] um I would of course forward that

[57:34] recommendation to the city manager and

[57:36] council um and then they would discuss

[57:39] and decide if they want the city to take

[57:42] any any specific action. Obviously, they

[57:44] do understand any action that they ask

[57:47] the city to take is going to potentially

[57:50] take staff time or dollars or both to

[57:53] implement and that is part of their job,

[57:56] right? Is to decide where the city's

[57:59] resources should be implemented. Yeah.

[58:03] >> Right. Right.

[58:05] >> And I think it's worth acknowledging

[58:06] that everything takes dollars. It's just

[58:09] whether or not we prioritize it. And if

[58:11] we want the city of Ashkosh to be an

[58:12] inclusive city, we need to say there are

[58:15] dollars.

[58:16] >> They just for whatever reason haven't

[58:18] been allocated this way. And if we want

[58:20] to prioritize this, let's allocate some

[58:22] dollar. We just This is one of the areas

[58:23] I think we've struggled with in the

[58:24] past. No, what does it actually look

[58:26] like? What do you allocate them to? And

[58:28] this is a practical example

[58:30] >> uh or a practical idea of we could

[58:33] allocate to this. And they may hear this

[58:35] and they may say, "Actually, we think

[58:37] it'd be better to do that." Mhm.

[58:39] >> But then at least it's [clears throat]

[58:41] in the city council record. They've

[58:42] discussed it. Like it's something we

[58:44] could bring up again like, "Hey, could

[58:45] you revisit this recommendation we

[58:47] made?"

[58:48] >> And I think like it is like a practical

[58:52] thing that you can point at and say,

[58:54] "Our committee did that." And also like

[58:56] now more people actually can find out

[58:59] how to pay their parking ticket or

[59:01] whatever and maybe not, you know, have a

[59:04] ding on their record or, you know, or

[59:07] ding in their credit. Dr. Pang told me a

[59:09] story of this woman who she didn't

[59:13] understand how to move her utilities

[59:15] like from one apartment to another

[59:16] apartment. So she had just been paying

[59:18] both utilities for like a month and a

[59:20] half cuz she didn't know how to do it

[59:22] and she didn't want to stop paying one

[59:23] cuz she didn't want to get a ding on her

[59:24] credit. So it was like

[59:27] >> that's a good that's a good example

[59:29] because that is a city service you ask

[59:31] before was like and so

[59:32] >> I think if we can get more stories like

[59:34] that even be able to bring the you know

[59:36] council if you know

[59:38] >> when we

[59:39] >> write a resolution or recommendation for

[59:41] resolution I don't know what the proper

[59:43] terminology is

[59:44] >> and say we are seeing these things

[59:46] happen exe y and z and this is why we're

[59:48] proposing you to do this I think that

[59:51] would really help

[59:52] >> would you be able to ask Dr. paying just

[59:54] like the difference between

[59:58] somebody coming in cuz I need help

[1:00:00] understanding something read to me

[1:00:03] >> or city service assistance, right? So,

[1:00:07] like I think having some statistics to

[1:00:09] say like, hey, this one specific thing

[1:00:13] is super confusing and nobody can figure

[1:00:15] it out.

[1:00:16] >> Cuz resource-wise, updating a website,

[1:00:19] literally it took me 7 hours of code to

[1:00:21] update my own business website last week

[1:00:23] and that was for one page. that I think

[1:00:27] like it would be a lot easier to have a

[1:00:30] translator redo a form that you can make

[1:00:35] as a resource like here's this form in

[1:00:38] your native language

[1:00:41] >> it's available.

[1:00:42] >> Yeah. I just feel like cuz the forms you

[1:00:44] have to like

[1:00:46] >> I don't know. I think that the website

[1:00:48] >> I have found in helping people access

[1:00:51] social services, it's often easier to

[1:00:53] physically hand someone a paper form to

[1:00:56] fill out than it is to try and explain

[1:00:58] and navigate a website.

[1:01:00] >> Yeah. And I can't remember this. I And

[1:01:02] this is why I said we might need to do

[1:01:03] some sort of audit cuz I thought like

[1:01:05] legally we have to have some of those

[1:01:06] things on hand.

[1:01:07] >> You should.

[1:01:08] >> I think I I don't know. I think legally

[1:01:10] the city has to have some of those

[1:01:11] things on hand. Typically in Wisconsin,

[1:01:15] >> um, public information should be

[1:01:16] English, Spanish, Mon,

[1:01:18] >> but that might just be physical. I don't

[1:01:20] know what the

[1:01:21] >> Yes, you have to have a physical

[1:01:25] theoretically have to have a physical

[1:01:27] copy of that available.

[1:01:29] >> But I'm saying I don't know what the

[1:01:30] Does that apply to digital copies too?

[1:01:32] Does

[1:01:32] >> I don't think so.

[1:01:34] >> So that I mean that's something we need

[1:01:35] to figure out. And all all that being

[1:01:37] said, like even the things that I don't

[1:01:39] want the city to do just what's legally

[1:01:41] required cuz we know that's always the

[1:01:42] bare minimum. Um, and that's where I

[1:01:45] want to figure out

[1:01:46] >> where are people struggling to navigate.

[1:01:48] And even this I think this is really

[1:01:50] good information you got is hearing that

[1:01:52] people are struggling. There are still

[1:01:54] forms they're bringing brought in

[1:01:56] >> and and maybe we find out, oh, there

[1:01:57] actually was a translated form. It just

[1:01:59] wasn't easy to know that or wasn't easy

[1:02:01] to find it. And that's a different

[1:02:02] solution.

[1:02:03] >> Exactly.

[1:02:04] >> It wasn't easy to know. It was an easy

[1:02:05] to find. It was translated poorly. It

[1:02:07] was

[1:02:07] >> maybe it's out of date. Maybe it never

[1:02:09] got updated the last one.

[1:02:10] >> That's true. Cuz like maybe they updated

[1:02:12] it on the website, but no one thought to

[1:02:15] translate an update like you know

[1:02:17] >> my background is in organizational

[1:02:18] behavior management. So that's why I'm

[1:02:20] like very

[1:02:21] >> I like put things in columns and then

[1:02:24] check them off.

[1:02:25] >> [laughter]

[1:02:26] >> Um thinking you had mentioned though and

[1:02:30] I want to focus on that the the elderly

[1:02:35] people.

[1:02:36] >> We know mom wasn't written

[1:02:39] >> until the 1960s. I don't know the

[1:02:41] history of Sweet Lee. So

[1:02:43] >> it was more like more recently

[1:02:45] >> but thinking about in terms of right a

[1:02:48] whole website redesign is hard. Is it

[1:02:51] possible to add oral

[1:02:54] >> like a video of somebody giving the

[1:02:57] directions

[1:02:59] >> as if they can't read it anyways?

[1:03:01] >> Yeah.

[1:03:01] >> No, that's that's that's an idea that

[1:03:04] >> I think that's that's something that

[1:03:05] could come up if we get something like a

[1:03:07] feasibility

[1:03:09] >> making a recommendation. It could be

[1:03:12] evaluate this and then I don't know

[1:03:16] whoever does that feasibility study. But

[1:03:21] yeah, I think that the notes are good

[1:03:24] and we can discuss about how to put it

[1:03:27] on for next time. We can I'll I'll talk

[1:03:30] to Dr. Pang and ask her for if there's

[1:03:31] like any specific forms that people come

[1:03:34] to her with a lot. Um,

[1:03:38] and then I'll try to do some My

[1:03:41] husband's a data analytics manager, so

[1:03:43] I'll use his skills. Um,

[1:03:48] well, and I can see what I can find out

[1:03:50] from the most used forms. I mean, I

[1:03:53] don't I don't know what data we have,

[1:03:55] but I'll certainly see what I can find

[1:03:57] out from our um either communications

[1:04:00] department or even the the departments

[1:04:03] themselves that are

[1:04:05] >> I mean, obviously, there are forms that

[1:04:08] the clerk's office

[1:04:10] >> um you know,

[1:04:12] >> needs people to fill out. There are

[1:04:14] people applying for services and

[1:04:16] community development.

[1:04:18] >> Um there are people paying their utility

[1:04:20] bills.

[1:04:21] >> Yeah. uh online or in person.

[1:04:25] >> Um and we are I know we are putting more

[1:04:29] and more forms online.

[1:04:32] Um

[1:04:34] there's still obviously option to come

[1:04:36] in and and pay bills and and pro and

[1:04:39] have things done in person, but um there

[1:04:42] are more and more forms going online

[1:04:46] >> and I'm not overly familiar with the

[1:04:50] >> the platform that we're using. Um, I

[1:04:53] think it also has translation

[1:04:56] now, but I I will not pretend to be an

[1:04:59] expert

[1:05:00] >> on on the software or the

[1:05:04] translatability

[1:05:05] >> of uh some of the new online services

[1:05:08] we've been providing.

[1:05:10] >> And I'd be willing to guess it's a whole

[1:05:11] suite of different software providers.

[1:05:14] Mhm.

[1:05:14] >> So even if one software provider has the

[1:05:17] ability that does this thing and

[1:05:18] everything does

[1:05:18] >> overall city website is not

[1:05:22] it doesn't flow very well.

[1:05:24] >> Yes, this is we have discussed this. we

[1:05:26] have discussed this

[1:05:27] >> and and like I said the there is a

[1:05:30] project at this time

[1:05:32] >> that's a big [clears throat]

[1:05:33] >> yes to redesign

[1:05:36] >> and especially since that project is

[1:05:37] ongoing this is something that

[1:05:40] >> right

[1:05:40] >> it's a good time to at least be looking

[1:05:43] at this as part of the website redesign

[1:05:48] >> and also making city council aware that

[1:05:50] this is

[1:05:51] >> is important yeah

[1:05:52] >> and I think when we get to that point

[1:05:54] too uh one of the things that would

[1:05:56] matter to me is that not only do we say

[1:06:00] let's [clears throat]

[1:06:00] fill the holes that have existed before,

[1:06:03] >> but I wonder if there are some way that

[1:06:04] we can recommend to council to say we

[1:06:07] don't want to have this problem again in

[1:06:08] the future. So making sure anytime a new

[1:06:10] form or new like there's a requirement.

[1:06:13] >> I don't actually know what council is

[1:06:15] able to do cuz that's more of a

[1:06:17] department policy, but they might be

[1:06:18] able to

[1:06:20] >> legislate something that says we want to

[1:06:22] require that every time this happens, it

[1:06:24] needs to be translated into these. Mhm.

[1:06:25] >> Seven language or what whatever it is so

[1:06:27] we don't have this problem in 5 years

[1:06:28] when all we have all these new forms.

[1:06:30] >> That's a great idea

[1:06:31] >> and and that's where I would say that

[1:06:33] could fall somewhere between the

[1:06:36] authority of the city manager and the

[1:06:38] authority of council. Um so I would

[1:06:43] as I mentioned I would share this with

[1:06:45] city manager and council. Um because the

[1:06:48] city manager directs staff

[1:06:50] >> the council directs city manager. So,

[1:06:54] you know, ultimately the city manager is

[1:06:58] going to direct staff to have policies

[1:07:00] and procedures in place for everything

[1:07:03] that we do.

[1:07:05] Okay.

[1:07:08] Anything else on

[1:07:10] you? Yes, I'm not on this. I can share.

[1:07:12] >> Yeah. Um, so I've been working on just

[1:07:16] looking at different resources and

[1:07:17] assets that we have in our community.

[1:07:19] Um, so I started with food. We actually

[1:07:22] have quite a few different um like

[1:07:24] entities that are making their own

[1:07:26] resource maps. Um so like the Winnebago

[1:07:29] County Health um has interactive food

[1:07:32] resource map and a local like food list.

[1:07:34] So it lists all our pantries in the area

[1:07:37] um just like when they're open um

[1:07:39] eligibility, things like that. Um the

[1:07:41] Ashkosh Area United Way connects people

[1:07:43] to 211. So, there's that website that

[1:07:46] you can navigate um look up different

[1:07:47] resources, but you can also call the

[1:07:49] number um and then the city of Oshkosh

[1:07:52] and housing authorities share housing

[1:07:54] resources and public health and ADRC

[1:07:56] also um publish help and support

[1:07:59] information. So, I've just kind of been

[1:08:00] pulling those different ones and just

[1:08:02] seeing like

[1:08:04] >> like which resources overlap and maybe

[1:08:06] which ones are missing. Um and I'm just

[1:08:09] going to continue doing that cuz I think

[1:08:10] a lot of people are already doing the

[1:08:12] work. It's just kind of putting it

[1:08:13] together.

[1:08:14] >> Yeah. Mhm.

[1:08:15] >> Yeah.

[1:08:16] >> That's great.

[1:08:16] >> I think we kind of discover today um I I

[1:08:20] don't think we all knew in this room

[1:08:22] what Father Carr

[1:08:25] >> was all doing. I didn't realize that

[1:08:27] they had a a food

[1:08:30] >> uh pantry. Um so I think again

[1:08:34] >> knowing what all the resources are for

[1:08:36] people in the community is something

[1:08:38] we've been trying to work on in this

[1:08:41] committee. right, is getting the word

[1:08:43] out there because there are a lot of

[1:08:45] great resources out there to help

[1:08:46] people.

[1:08:47] >> Uh, but the the issue is people don't

[1:08:50] know what resources are out there to

[1:08:52] help them.

[1:08:54] >> Yeah. And I think that's where like

[1:08:56] Amanda, your language piece comes in too

[1:08:58] cuz I'm finding that like everything's

[1:09:00] typically in English obviously. Um, but

[1:09:02] it's like once we have like a knowledge

[1:09:04] of what these resources are, then we can

[1:09:07] think about like can people access and

[1:09:08] like what are the barriers and language

[1:09:10] is a common barrier and like

[1:09:12] transportation is a common barrier. So I

[1:09:14] think it'll be nice to identify those.

[1:09:16] >> Yeah.

[1:09:16] >> Based on the resources.

[1:09:18] >> Thank you. That's awesome.

[1:09:21] >> Anything else

[1:09:27] before we move on to the next thing?

[1:09:31] Okay. committee table committee member

[1:09:33] round table share DEI related activities

[1:09:35] and events in the area.

[1:09:38] I didn't write anything down cuz I was

[1:09:40] doing this other stuff. Does anyone have

[1:09:42] anything that they what's going on in

[1:09:46] September and October? So, I did just

[1:09:48] write down one that I know is coming up

[1:09:50] dia del uh dia de los mutos at the

[1:09:55] museum every October. Um, this year

[1:09:59] people can participate by submitting

[1:10:01] photos of loved ones to honor. Um, they

[1:10:04] can do that through October 23rd. They

[1:10:07] can drop off a copy during museum hours,

[1:10:09] which are 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

[1:10:12] Tuesday through Saturday. The event

[1:10:14] itself is Saturday, October 26th.

[1:10:17] Certainly, if you're looking for more

[1:10:19] information, the Ashkosh Museum um has

[1:10:22] more information out there. But this is,

[1:10:24] I think, their fourth annual.

[1:10:27] >> Yeah.

[1:10:28] >> Um and it has been more and more

[1:10:31] attended every single year.

[1:10:33] >> It's amazing.

[1:10:34] >> Yeah.

[1:10:35] >> At the public museum.

[1:10:36] >> Yeah.

[1:10:36] >> It's at the public museum, correct?

[1:10:38] >> Yep.

[1:10:39] >> It's so fun. And that's so nice that

[1:10:41] they're doing pictures of love.

[1:10:43] >> Yeah. I think this is new this year. I I

[1:10:45] had not heard about this in previous

[1:10:46] years. So

[1:10:47] >> that's nice. Does anyone have any other

[1:10:50] fun events?

[1:10:51] >> I'm trying to find the date. Um there's

[1:10:55] two different hotels in the area that do

[1:10:59] a sensory

[1:11:00] >> friendly free trick-or-treating event.

[1:11:03] So different area organizations sponsor

[1:11:06] a room.

[1:11:07] >> Mhm.

[1:11:07] >> Um and I cannot find the date, but I

[1:11:11] will find it and then we can add that.

[1:11:14] Mhm.

[1:11:14] >> Um

[1:11:16] there's also one in Watertown, but

[1:11:18] >> yeah, that's far away.

[1:11:21] >> Um and then the

[1:11:24] church,

[1:11:27] Kitty Corner from here,

[1:11:31] they do a trunk or treat.

[1:11:34] >> Oh, wow.

[1:11:34] >> That's daytime,

[1:11:36] >> very small,

[1:11:38] >> very accommodating.

[1:11:39] >> Yeah, that's there are a lot of really

[1:11:40] nice trunker treats. And I trunker

[1:11:42] trading was not a thing when I was a

[1:11:43] kid. And it's like

[1:11:45] >> kind of fun. People really go all out

[1:11:47] with their trunks.

[1:11:49] >> And you don't have to walk far.

[1:11:51] >> Yeah. And then no one's home anyway cuz

[1:11:53] everyone's at the trunk.

[1:11:54] >> Yep.

[1:11:56] >> Is there any other any other fun events?

[1:12:00] There probably are. I just don't know

[1:12:01] what they are.

[1:12:04] there any do we know what's going on

[1:12:05] in in council meetings of outstanding

[1:12:08] items? Future items?

[1:12:10] >> Yeah. Unfortunately, no. I did not um

[1:12:13] >> Don't worry about it. I did not collect

[1:12:16] what's going on on council

[1:12:19] >> um right now. Budget, budget, budget.

[1:12:23] >> Um there will be all sorts of budget

[1:12:26] meetings coming up throughout October

[1:12:29] that anyone who wants to watch them is

[1:12:31] welcome to tune in. Um, off the top of

[1:12:34] my head, I know the the next the I think

[1:12:38] the first operations part of the budget

[1:12:41] meeting is October 13th. There's one

[1:12:44] October 13th, one October 14th. I think

[1:12:46] there's one October 15th, and then I

[1:12:48] think there's another couple of days

[1:12:49] after that.

[1:12:50] >> Um, and that's the operating. There have

[1:12:53] already been a lot of meetings on

[1:12:55] capital improvement. Um but operating

[1:12:58] budget which is basically all of our

[1:13:00] budgets that we spend on

[1:13:02] >> people

[1:13:03] resources websites fuel uh you know all

[1:13:08] of the things that uh

[1:13:10] >> make the city run.

[1:13:12] >> Yeah.

[1:13:13] So those are important meetings.

[1:13:15] So watch those or go to them. Are those

[1:13:18] open to the public?

[1:13:19] >> Generally yes they are open to the

[1:13:21] public. Um

[1:13:22] >> I started saying it. We don't we don't

[1:13:23] have a lot of people that come for the

[1:13:26] budget workshops necessarily. Um it is

[1:13:29] not an open forum but anybody is welcome

[1:13:31] to come watch.

[1:13:33] >> No

[1:13:34] >> I can't be a spectator. I don't know

[1:13:36] >> and you I mean you can get those uh

[1:13:37] forms and everything the slides

[1:13:39] everything afterwards and review

[1:13:41] >> that's my suggestion to people is is to

[1:13:43] read the stuff afterward and for anyone

[1:13:45] watching if anyone like that actually is

[1:13:47] super helpful because that is where you

[1:13:48] see different areas of inclusivity and

[1:13:50] diversity like saying cuz sometimes you

[1:13:52] miss those things I mean we can't know

[1:13:55] everything there's only a few of us on

[1:13:56] this board and council can't know

[1:13:57] everything like

[1:13:58] >> even as we're talking about

[1:14:00] >> tonight the example of uh language

[1:14:02] access

[1:14:03] >> you don't know unless usually you are

[1:14:05] someone impacted by it

[1:14:06] >> and some people might see that in the

[1:14:08] budget um issue uh budget discussions

[1:14:10] that

[1:14:11] >> budget is disproportionately impacted

[1:14:14] because it always is we just don't know

[1:14:15] where and that's what we need to know

[1:14:16] and I would love if people brought that

[1:14:18] forward to us and said hey did you know

[1:14:20] this you should talk about this

[1:14:21] >> um same thing goes with zoning uh which

[1:14:23] is a conversation happening

[1:14:26] >> um right now too um is just how that

[1:14:28] disproportionately impacts other people

[1:14:30] of how we update our zoning codes and whatnot Um I have uh different

[1:14:36] thoughts but nothing gather enough to

[1:14:38] talk tonight but definitely would love

[1:14:40] to hear from people who are watching

[1:14:41] those things, listening to those things

[1:14:42] and saying hey this is

[1:14:43] disproportionately impacting and we need

[1:14:45] to think about this as a city how we

[1:14:47] handle this.

[1:14:47] >> Yeah for sure people in the community

[1:14:50] you can tell us email us. All of our

[1:14:52] email addresses are on the city website.

[1:14:54] So if you have things you want to tell

[1:14:57] us nice things maybe um cuz we we are

[1:15:02] here to help.

[1:15:02] >> Right. There is a specific DEI email as

[1:15:06] well. Um, off the top of my head, I

[1:15:08] think it's just DEIshwi.gov,

[1:15:11] which does come to me and then I can

[1:15:13] distribute to all of the the members.

[1:15:16] Um, and I'm saying that very not 100%

[1:15:20] sure that's the [laughter]

[1:15:23] website. Verify on the website.

[1:15:25] >> It sounds right. So, for future agenda

[1:15:28] items, we are going to have Nami here in

[1:15:31] October. Yep.

[1:15:33] >> So, are we also going to try to bring in

[1:15:36] communication?

[1:15:37] >> I'm going. Yes. I'm going to see what I

[1:15:38] can do for October to um number one,

[1:15:42] have some information, and two, see if I

[1:15:44] can get someone to attend.

[1:15:46] >> Um I can't promise cuz I don't make

[1:15:50] promises for other people, but I will do

[1:15:52] what I can. [laughter]

[1:15:54] >> Is there anything else anyone wants to

[1:15:57] say?

[1:15:59] So uh question about that next agenda

[1:16:01] too. So is the goal that we would have

[1:16:04] something written uh that we want to

[1:16:08] vote on to advise a council on by

[1:16:10] October?

[1:16:12] >> Yes. So, I'm generally going to take

[1:16:14] Amanda's recommendation and unless she

[1:16:17] comes up with something different and

[1:16:19] put um some ability to or something

[1:16:23] similar to that so that we can have

[1:16:25] discussion and then um vote on that or

[1:16:29] we can amend that to something else. But

[1:16:32] there would be an action item on the

[1:16:34] agenda that we're going to potentially

[1:16:36] vote on that recommendation. Again, that

[1:16:39] way people if they have an opinion about

[1:16:42] that recommendation, they would know

[1:16:44] that they can come to the meeting and

[1:16:46] talk to us and we can gather some

[1:16:48] information and like I said, I can bring

[1:16:50] in information from communications

[1:16:53] regarding what they are working on when

[1:16:55] it comes to website and the

[1:16:58] translatability which again I'm not an

[1:17:00] expert on. um so that we can utilize

[1:17:04] that to potentially sculpt

[1:17:07] >> um any recommendation.

[1:17:09] >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to make

[1:17:10] sure that was on the October agenda

[1:17:11] because

[1:17:12] >> it's going to be because then it'll be

[1:17:13] like

[1:17:13] >> December

[1:17:14] >> January, right? [laughter]

[1:17:16] >> Right. Um do we have a motion to

[1:17:21] second?

[1:17:22] >> You have to make a motion. Shoot.

[1:17:25] >> You leave a motion to adjour.

[1:17:27] >> So moved.

[1:17:28] [laughter]

[1:17:30] Huh?

[1:17:31] >> There we go.

[1:17:32] >> I was so confident.

[1:17:33] >> No, wait. Beth, you got to lead with

[1:17:34] that. I love it. All in favor?

[1:17:36] >> I I [laughter]

[1:17:42] [music]

Oshkosh Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee 9/28/26

Transcript